Flying machine



19 19266 u :3. H. FLYING MACHINE Filed A il '2 1925 B n i 1 TTORNE YS.

C. H. FREEQE FLYING MACHINE Filed April 7, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet IN VENTOR,

Oct. 19 1926. 3,603,384

' Cl. H. FREESE v FLYING MACHINE Filed April '7 1925 4 Sheetafiheet 4UUD EX Patented Oct. 19, 1926 UNITED STATES PATENTTOFFICE.

CLAUDE H. FREESE, OF'LS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNbR OF ONE-THIRD TO'H.ZELIFF AND ONE-THIRD T FRANK J'. SCHWEITZER, BOTH 01: LOS ANGELES, CALI-FORNIA.

FLYING, MACHINE.

Application filed April 7, 1925. Serial No. 21,274.

This invention relates to flying machines and. in particular to acombined machine utilizing lifting surfaces as well as gas formaintaining buoyancy and lift. In one form the invention embodies arigid t pe .of dirigible so constructed as to most e ciently carrylifting plane surfaces such as used in airplanes for the purpose ofincreasing the lift of such craft, and so that such craft may carrygreater weightsthan are now possible for either an airplane or dirigibleseparately considered.

It is a known fact that the well-known types of dirigible balloons ofthe rigid type T such as the Shenandoah or the Los Angeles, are capableof carrying but very little useful load. By useful load is meant a loadsuch as passengers, baggage and the like. The gas cells of theShenandoah have a displacement of 2,148,070 cubic feet, and thisparticular dirigible is filled with helium which has a liftingco-eflicient of approximately 85 per cent of that of hydrogen Anauthoritiyt on air ships states that hydrogen has a ll of approximately68 pounds per cubic foot at a temperature of 60 degrees F. when thedensity of the air is .073 lb. per 0. ft. I Thus it has been foundthatthe Shenandoah has a lift with helium of approximately 109,551

pounds, and as the dead weight of this par ticular air ship isapproximately 82,000

pounds, it being noted that dead Weight does not include passengers,water, gasoline or oil, it will be readily seen that the actual liftingefficiency of such a large air ship is very small and is only around20,000 pounds. It therefore follows that the hope of ever designing anair ship adapted for trans- Atlantic or trans-Pacific fiightsfor thecarriage of passengers and freight, is practically impossible ofaccomphshment on a commercial basis, unless some new form of gas isdiscovered or some means is provided for increasing the buoyancy orthe'lifting ability of the air ship. Helium of course is used at thepresent time in preference to hydrogen, and certainly it-must be used ina commercial air ship in preference to hydrogen because helium does notburn. However,

the use of helium means a 15 per centreduction in the lift of the shipover its lift if hydrogen is used, and a 15 per cent re duction in liftmeans a 40 per cent reduction in the entire load.

With my particular type of flying machine I am able to overcome in alarge measure the necessity for valving the gas due to changes inbuoyancy. of the air ship. Valving of helium is ver expensive and therefore must be avoide It is ordinary practice at the present time to takeadvantage of solar heat in the earlyn orning when a ship has been mooredto a'mooringmast so that the gas within the gas bags will expand toincrease the buoyancy of the ship and after the buoyancy has reached acertain de ree to cut loose from the mooring mast to afiow the ship torise. This must be done before the sun s rays commence to heat thesurface of the. ground as the expansive effect of the gas would be in ameasure overcome if the ship were allowed to remain moored and theearths surface was hot. This is well known in-a'ir ship navigation forthe reason I that the air-ships buoyancy depends upon the weight of airdisplaced and the weight of the shipand the gas she contains, and thevariation which most influences the lift of the ship is therefore thatof the density of the surrounding air. After an air shiphas 'left amooringmast and'is a considerable height above the earths surface themotors revolving large propellers increase the ships lift approximatelyten per cent. However, after an angle of approximately 13 degrees,considering the angle of yaw, is reached, the maximum lift for the shipis obtained and the only relief to gain altitude would be to dropballast. It appears that pressure height is usually 4,500 feet above theearths surface when the gas bags in the airship'are filled with 85percent of their capacity at the earths surface, and. at 4,500 feet thegas in the bags. is usually expanded to full capacity. In order tomaintain height, there-' fore, it has been customary to'repeatedlydischarge gas if the ship goes too high or there is danger of burstingthe bags; or the automatic valvesjoperate to discharge gas if the bagsexpand beyond a certain limit and when the ship loses buoyancy, ballastis discharged. Consequently in present practice it is customary toovercome deficiency of buoyanc by utilizing whatever aerodynamic liftmig t be obtained when the axis of the hull makes a small angle with theline of flight. When, however, thehull of an airship is acting as anaerofoil the resistance to forward motion is appreciably increased.

The abovestates some of the disadvantages now attendant in airshipconstruction and flight. t

As the cruising range of a dirigible is usually much greater than thatof an airplane, I have combined the best features of air planeconstruction with that of the rigid type of dirigible construction, andmyinvention has for an object the provision of a flying machine adaptedto carry greater useful load than now possible by airships or airplanesand over great distances.

Another object is the provision of a, flying machine which will safelyhouse useful load such as passengers with a maximum degree of safety andprovide more freedom of "movement on the flying machine than is nowpossible in the dirigible type of airship,

Another object is the provision of a flying machine in whichtheresistance to flight is Vith the above mentioned and other ob-,

jects in View, the invention consists in'the v novel and usefulprovision, formation, con s'truction, combination, association andinterrelation of-parts, members and features, all

'as illustrated in certain of its embodiments in the accompanying.drawings, described generally and more particularly pointed out in theclaims.

In the drawings: a Figure 1 is a perspective view of the 1mproved flyingmachine in flight;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal view of the fly-' ing machine on a reducedscale from the showing of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of the flying machine also on a reducedscale from the showing of Figure 1;

' Figure 4 is a front elevation ofthe nose of the machine, the samebeing on an enlarged scale from the showing of Figures 1 to 3 inclusive;

Figure 5 is a detail of the construction of the flying machine andshowing means for varying the angle of incidence of liftingplanemembers;

Figure 6 is a detail looking in the direction of the arrows 66 of Figure5;

Figure 7 is a detail of the landing chassis; Figure 8 is a partiallysectioned view of the landing chassis, same being in front ele-- vationCorresponding parts in all. the figures are' designated by the samereference characters.

Referring with particularity to the drawings, the improved aircraft isdesignated as i an entirety by A, and the same includes a combinedaerostat a and airplane 6, both of which types of aircraft are used inpracticing one embodiment of theinvention.

The aircraft of the present design does away with the necessity ofproviding the now familiar navigating gondolas, and rear,

aft and fore power cars now almost uniformly hung below the averagerigid type of aerostat. It has been found by experiment that theresistance of the r are so hung beneathan aerostat constitutes inpercentages.

as high as 20 per cent oithe total resistance of the aerostat. No carsor any form hang beneath the aerostat in the present invention so thatresistance ,due to such cars is overcome. t

The aerostat of the presentinvention takes the form of an air ship ofthe rigid type, and the airplane utilizes the hull of the air ship asits fuselage and the lifting planesare distributed along the hull instaggered relation in order to do away with interference between theplanes from bow to stern. The. motive elements are also distributed inspaced relation outward from the hull and from aft to stern of the hull.The air ship hull isldesignated generally by c, and the same includesframe-work such as longitudinal girders (Z and transverse frame-workcommonly called polygonal frame-work e.

The number of longitudinal girders will of course depend upon the sizeofthe polygonal frames e, and a sutiicient number of such longitudinalgirders are provided to suitably brace the hull. The girders cZ'at thezones 1 would be known as the intermediate longitudinahgirders, whilegirders at 2 would be known as the main longitudinal girders.

The hull is internally subdivided to provide a central transverselyextending and longitudinally extending compartment member 7,

and spaced transverse girders 4 and 5, of

"ment portion gand a lower compartment portion it. These transversegirders 4 and 5 are secured to the main longitudinal girders 2, and thismethod of trussmg forms a very IUD rigid structure for the air shiphull, so

far as transverse stresses are concerned.

Throughout the length of the-hull frame formed and immediately above thesame and secured to the transverse members 5 are struts 8 and 9 whichextend between the members 4 and 5 for bracing the same. An apex struthaving a central member 10 and two angularly related legs 11 and 12extends between thetop center line girder and the member 4 with the legsdirectly over the struts 8 and 9. In one sense it might be said that thehull is provided with upper and lower keel members; that is to say, and7 with the 0 which they are joined and which extend from bow to stern,.as well as the transverse frame-work, constitute the lower keel, whilethe apex strut members which extend from bow to stern and are associatedwith the transverse girders 4 as well as the longitudinal girders atthese panel points,const1tute a top keel. It is thus evident that theair ship is quite rigidly braced both above and below the compartment Asa result longitudinal buckling of the air ship is practically impossible. The frame-work of the hull is so fabricated as to give amaximum degree of rigidity and strength without using a great number offrame-work members, and which fabrication is comparatively light. Thevarious frame-work members might be of I-beam duralumin: Bracing membersare provided wherever necessary, such as shown for the lower division ofthe hull at 13 and 14. Upper gas cells j are carried in the topcompartment portion g, and

lower gas cells 7:: are within the lowercompartment portion h. I As'iscustomary in air ship practice a plurality of such gas cells both 7' and7c are provided from aft to stern of the air ship hull. It is to beparticularly noted that the top compartment portion g of the hull ismuch greater in size than the lower portion h, and that the cubiccontents of the gas cells j is therefore much greater than the cubiccontents for the gas cells is. Furthermore, the air ship hull is notcylindrical in transverse section but the maximum horizontal transversedimension is considerably greater than its maximum vertical transversedimension. The maximum transverse horizontal dimension would be at thecentral compartment portion 7, and the maximum vertical transversedimension would be directly central of the ships hull. Thisform ofconstruction has been adopted for the reason that it gives more space inthe upper compartment 9 for the gas cells'and likewise adds to the allround stability and efiiciency of the ship It has been found by theplurality of struts 6 ngitudinal girders with.

experiment that with the exception of a few isolated cases, theintroduction of cylindrical body construction causes an increase inresistance co-efiicient at higher speeds. In his connection the forwardcurved portion of the air ship body, namely, that portion of the hullwhich curves inwardly. to. form the forward curved portion or bow, isalso elliptical in form, as shown in Figure 4:,

and'is preferably made at least two diameters in length as it has beenfound that this will give alow resistance c0-etficicnt and likewise thetail portion has a gradual curve the same as the bow portion and is sometwo and five-tenths diameters in length so as to give a low resistanceco-efiicient. The gas cell bags .are of any preferred material such asgold beaters skinned fabric and are sur rounded bycord netting next tosuch bags, as indicated fragmentarily in Fig. 10 at 15, with wirenetting 16 next to the cord netting. Likewise in between the adjacentends of the gas bags and associated with the polygonal frame members andthe longitudinal and transverse girders, are the various chord wires 17for internally bracing the hull frame-work. Thisis standard practice,and likewise it is standard practice to provide main diagonal wires 18between the intermediate transverse framework and the intermediatelongitudinal frame=work, as well as secondary diagonal wires 19 betweensuch members. An outer cover 20 encloses the hull from aft to stern. Thestern portion has what is known as *a tail group designated generally bym and-the same includes fins 21 and 22, rudders 23 and 24 in alignmentwith the fins, and stabilizers 25 and 26 as well as elevators 27 and 28in alignment with such stabilizers.

The central compartment f is divided into upper and lower compartmentportions 28 and 29 with a flooring 30 between such compartments, andthis flooring is suitably braced by transverse girders as well aslongitudinal girders, as indicated at 31 and 32, it being 'noted thatthe girders 32 would form a part of the main longitudinal girders. 7

such as indicated at 33, and be very much like the average ocean linerin appearance. There might be a dance hall, sleeping compartments anddining room, toilets and the like all included upon this fioor, whilethe compartment space 29 could be used for the storage of variouscommodities such as in- .dica'ted at 34. The outside covering 20 of theair ship is provided with a plurality ofwindows 35 and 36 for thecompartment portions 28 and 29 and whereby passengers might surveysurrounding scenervduring flight of the machine. The general'appearanceof the flying machine would be like that shown in Fig. 1, and the windowportions The compartment space 28 might be divided into rooms havingentrance doors portance.

would be substantially flush with the outer covering so as to reduceskin friction as' much as possible. As was stated formerly, thepercentage of resistance ofthe cars which hang below an air ship is ashigh as 20 per cent of the total resistance, and therefore the doingaway with hanging cars and enclosing the passenger compartments, as wellas the useful load portions and the operat-" ing portions of the airship is of great im- The pilots house would be in the forward portion.of the ship and the pilot would have a clear outlook through certain ofthe windows. The space between the struts 6 and 7 in the lowercompartment por- I partment portion h, and included as between thestruts 13 and 14, and running longiudinally of the hull, are waterballast tanks 41 and 42, there being pipe connections 43 and 44associated with the tanks 41 and 42 respectively and with pump means 45,whereby the water level within the tanks on either side of the hull maybe controlled at will.

'It is of course understood that there is'a plurality of such tanks 41and 42 and that separate pipe connections with separate pumps for the.respective tanks would be vprovided, such separate water tanks beingshown in part in Fig. 10. The upper keel portion and particularly thespace between the legs 11 and 12 of the apex struts, would act as a keelrun-way whereby operators might examine the gas cells in the upper.compartment 9 and straighten the cell bags as the gas within such cellbags expanded.

The airplane portion 1) in the present instance includes airplane mainsupporting surfaces or lifting wings spacedly distributed along oppositesides of the hull as illustrated in Fig. 3 at 43 and 44, which wings arealternately staggered as indicated at 45 and 46," 45 indicating theupper wingportionsand 46 the lower wing portions. The wing structure isfurther illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6and as each wingstructure-isidentical "only one of such wings will, be described.

Referringjo Fig. 9 "it will be seen that there are vertically extendingstruts 47 and 48 between certain of the longitudinal.

girders and the polygonalframe-work; and that one of such verticalstruts 47 is shown in Fig. 5 and that horizontal brace members areincluded as between such strut 47 and the polygonalframe-work asindicated at 49 and 50. Figure 5 illustrates one of the wing members 43and this wing member is likethe wing not being'important, as thecurvature of such wing will largely depend upon the size of the ship,and such wing has interposed as between the top and bottom surfacesthereof, a shaft member 51. This shaft member is preferably locatedcentrally of the center of gravity of the wing and likewise at the mostforward travel of the center of pressure of the wing. The shaft extendsthrough a suitable bearing member 52 carried by the hull frame-work towhere it terminates in a bearing member 53 associated with the strut-47. Thewing framework as well as the covering of such wing is cut awayat a portion thereof, as indicated at 54, and a bearing collar 55surrounds the shaft 51 and -bracing rods. or wires 56', of which theremay be a plurality, are directly connected to this collar and with thehull frame-work. As stated, this bearing collar is located near theextremity of the'wing. Attandard 57 is carried by the brace member 49. Abearing member 58 is pivotally carried by such standard 57 and suchbearing likewise carries a screw-threaded shaft 59. The bearing allows arocking or oscillation of the shaft. Received within the standard is awheel 60 associated with the shaft 59. An arm member 61 is fixedlycarried on'the shaft 51 and said arm member is furc'ated and between thefurcations is pivoted a nut 62 with which the shaft 59 is inengagement.A turning of the wheel 60 will rotate the-shaft 59 and thereby causemovement in one direction or the other of the arm 61. The change inradius of the arm 61 during movement thereof will be compensated by thefact'that the shaft is allowed to. oscillate in the bearing 58 andlikewise allowed'limited oscillatory movement in the nut 62. It isobvious that a turning of the'wheel will rotate the shaft F51 carryingthe wing 43 and that the angle of incidence of the wing will thereforebe changed. Within the, framework of the hull and carried-by the member52 and depending from such member is an indicator 63 which is graduatedas shown 211254 and attached to t 1e arm Gland centrally of the shaft 51is a pointer 65 adapted to play over such graduations 64 whereby theangle of incidence of the wing may be directly read. As every other wingis constructed in a similar manner and as its angle of incidence is:regulated in a similar manner, it is" evident that instructions fromthe officers of the flying machine to the men to set the wings atcertain angle of inthe ship in a straight line.

cidence could be readily complied with, certain wings could be set atcertain positive angles and other wings set at negative angles, orvarious wing setting combinations could be had. The pitch of the threadsof the screw 59 is under four degrees, so that.

when the wheel 60 stops rotating no amount of pressure on the wingsurface will change the angleof incidence of the wing, as the shaftcould not be rotated by attempted movement of the nut 62.. The wingswould act to carry a large percentage of the useful load of the machineand I do not desire to restrict my invention to any specific number ofwings, as the number used will depend uponthe size and load to becarried by'the machine. The wings on opposite sides of the hull aregiven a positive dihedral for purposes of stability, and it will be seenthat whereas cars are usually hung beneath an air shipin order toovercome a transverse rolling effect, the use of wing surfaces willovercome in a large measure any tendency for the machine to rolltransversely or to pitch longitudinally and that the vmachine in actualuse would be comparatively safe and that the provision of a centralc0mpartment f would have little if any effect upon the lateral stabilityofthe machine. The lift dueto unequal loading of the ma: chine could becompensated by changing the angle of incidence of certain of the wings.Mancuverability of the machine is very easy asthe tail group is of asize sufficient to properly stabilize and direct'movement of the ship.Located intermediate the planes 43 and 4.4.- on both 'sides'of the hullare the propulsive means or'elements' and 71. The propulsive elements ineach instance .may include small stream-lined cars or housings 7 2suitably carried by means of girders 73 and74 attached to the frame-workof the hull and within such housings are engines 75 with propellers 76connected to the crank shafts of the engines. The number of thesepropulsive elements will depend upon the size of the machine. In theshowing of Figure .3 the axis of rotation of the propellers is at anangle to the sides of thehullso that the general tendency will be todrive Furthermore, this arrangement in a measure does away withinterference as between the propulsive elements and prevents followingpropellers of other propulsiveelements from having to work in adisturbed airstream. It is in tended that the propulsive elements shouldbe situated a sufiicient distance apart to avoid air wash between thepropellers and likewise so that the lifting surfaces might work at theirhighest efiiciency without the air about the same being unduly disturbedby the air wash of the propellers.

In the present embodiment I have provided a lhnding chassis 0 for themachine.

frame-work. "77 will be described. v

Referring to Figs. 7 and 8 the carriage maybe of duralumin or other'metal.

and 8 and the'same includes a plurality of independent carriage members77 which are spaced apart along the bottom ofthe hull One of suchcarriage members includes a bracket member 78 which is cut away as shownat 79 and extending through such cut-away portions is an axle 80, therebeing a pair of wheels 81 and 82 carried on such axle and on oppositesides of the bracket 78. Shockabsorber cord 83 is wound about the axleand about a member within thebracket. a, WVhen the wheels strike theground the shock is taken up by the shock absorber cord and the axle ispermitted to move within the slot 79 0f the bracket. A bearing'plate 84is carried by the hull frame-work, and the bracket 78 is swivellyconnected by means 85 to such bearing plate. The underside of the bullin addition tothe usual fabric covering 20 is likewise provided with ametal sheathing p extending as far up as the intermediate compartmentportion 7''. This metal sheathing The purpose of this sheathing is topermit the machine to land on the water safely in case of an enforcedlanding of the machine and where the machine is flying over a body ofwater. The wheels of the carriage are oflarge diameter so that themachine would stand considerable height above the ground when the sameis resting upon the ground. If desired, the nose of the machine might beprovidedwith a bow cap having a mooring cone outrigger so that theentire machine might be moored to the mooring mast if desir d.

lllt) In the showing I have provided a series of bracing bands '86 forsecurely lacing and bracing the bottom portion of the covering of themachine and for distributing stress to the framework in a measureabledegree when the machine is about to land on the landing chassis 0.-

A statement of the operation is perhaps unnecessary. However, it will beseen that thevarious wings may be adjusted to obtain maximum lift andthat. after the gas inthegas cells has become suificiently buoyant toallow the machine to drift away from the mooring mast if it has'beenmoored to a mast, or to allow the machine to run along the ground withthe wings set to obtain a maximum lift so that the same may rise fromthe ground directly, that it will be unnecessary to attempt during theflight of the ship, to constantly tip its nose upwardly to increase thelift, as is now customary. as the wings will lift a large percentage ofthe weight. Thus the necessity of throwing over ballast or valving thegas is practically done away with under ordinary flight cond1- a tions.The pressure height can. be maintained most of the time without loss ofgas, and lateral balance ofthe machine is maintained both by the waterballast system that ing efficiency of a wing surface depends.

upon the. velocity of the ship as well as the area of the wings. I wouldtherefore so proportion my wings that the same would have a high liftefficiency and also so that the wings would not be overly loaded.

There may be a common tube running the length of the airship hull in theupper chamher which has branches connecting with the gas cells wherebythe pressure between the gas cells may be equalized. A similararrangement would be provided for the gas cells in the lower chamber.

There is apparently no reason why aircraft constructed in accordancewith my invention should not be able to follow a mean flight path as thelifting wings could be so adjusted that a large percentage of the loadcould be carried by the same.- This being the case the aircraft couldfollow a horizontal flight path, and to again repeat, without thenecessity of constantly tipping the nose of the craft u wardly to takeadvantage of whatever sma sure against the hull. In other words, a zeroincidence might be maintained for the hull which would be ofgreatadvantage so far as resistance and speed are concerned.

' It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made inpracticing the invention, in departure from the particular lift mightoccur by presy showing of the drawing, without departing from the truespirit of the invention.

-Havin'g thus disclosed my invention, I I

diate, and lower chambers which extend transversely and longitudinallyof the hull; the maximum transverse dimension of the hull being greaterthan the maximum vertical dimension thereof.

3. In improvements in aircraft, comprising an airship hull, said hullbeing interiorly subdivided to provide upper, intermediate and lowerchambers which extend transversely and longitudinallypf the hull;

the maximum transverse dimension of the hull being greater than themaximum vertical dimension thereof, and said maximum transversedimension of the hull being at the intermediate chamber portion.

4. In improvements in aircraft, comprising an airship hull, saidhullbeing interiorly subdivided to provide upper, intermediate and lowerchambers which extend transversely and longitudinally of the hull; therebeing balancing control means in the lower compartment. I

5. In improvements in aircraft, the combination: an airship of the rigidtype, and a plurality of lifting wings projecting from bothsides oftheairship; said wings being spaced apart from bow to stern of the air,-ship, and in alternately staggered relation;

said wings being given a Ipositive dihedral.

In testimony whereof, name to ,this specification.

CLAUDE H. FREESE.

have signed my

